Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and Once Upon a Time: Is the Split-Season Plan Working Thus Far?

Back in August, ABC announced its ambitious plan to unspool three of its dramas — Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and Once Upon a Time — with “non-stop” split runs during the 2013-14 TV season. With Shonda Rhimes’ one-two punch returning tonight, and Once following on March 9, TVLine took stock of how this scheduling effort is affecting the ratings, for (hopefully) the better.

The “problem” the split-season plan sought to solve was one of frustrating preemptions throughout the season. Once Upon a Time, for example, was bumped or ran repeats six times during the back half of its sophomore run alone.

As Once cocreator Eddy Kitsis previously told TVLine, “Adam [Horowitz] and I, on our behalf, lobbied for” the 11-and-11 scheduling of episodes, “because we felt that last year it hurt momentum when they kept changing the scheduling.” With a nod to his and Horowitz’s previous TV home, he adds, “Lost was the same way. Our show needs to run continuous.”

Although, as the charts below indicate, Once‘s own “non-stop” scheduling hasn’t delivered any significant upside yet (compared to the first 11 episodes of Season 2), creatively the EPs only saw a win, being able to treat the season-opening Neverland arc as “one giant movie.”

One undeniable downside to ABC’s split-season plan is the difficulty experienced in filling the months-long winter hiatus with even remotely comparable fare. (For example, the Scandal-replacing Assets got yanked after two low-rated airings.) One week after pulling the plug on the period spy drama, ABC boss Paul Lee maintained that the extended winter hiatus offers “the chance to try some really interesting pieces of programming … in-season rather than doing it in the summer. So those particular experiments are ones we’re glad we’ve done.”

Here now is a series of charts plotting the ratings for the first half of the Grey’s, Scandal and Once seasons, assessing if the creative momentum translated into a less frustrated, more compelled and steadier viewership. Give the numbers a look and then tell us: Are the split seasons working for you?

Perhaps if Mr Lee had been smart enough to use Once in Wonderland as the hiatus bridge for OUAT it wouldn’t have been so difficult to bridge the hiatus with something similar. This guy needs to go and soon!!!

I do know that Matt but it doesn’t explain his decision in the first place. He basically ruined the show’s chances and likely will be cancelled. I liked the concept of split seasons but his choice of hiatus programming awful

I asked Paul Lee maybe 6 hours after ABC released their schedule last May and in turn reported, at least twice, that he “fell in love” (paraphrasing, maybe) with the OUATIW pilot and thus gave it the vote of confidence that he did.

Matt, first off I love that you are engaged on this topic. We know Mr Lee loved the show but OUATIW, much like some other shows, have basically been set up to fail while some of the junk stays in prime spots. Wonderland had killer competition so why did he put it there. The spot after Modern Family has had horrendous shows after them with no fit what so ever. More of my favorite shows are on ABC but I still don’t get what he is trying to do nor trust he will stick with shows

So basically, it was a case of acting on emotion instead of common sense? If you have a plan to show non-stop halves, at least have a good hiatus replacement, and if you supposedly have it, don’t screw the plan up by moving it up and having nothing for the split.

And of course, the “good hiatus replacement” is a way of speaking, since, if you ask me, OUATW was far below expectations, on many levels. Who knows, maybe it would’ve fared better on the hiatus, with a different competition, may it be direct or indirect (including OUAT itself).

Re: Having a good replacement show for the break – The Asset(s?) in place of Scandal; it was a crazy idea to begin with and he paid the price since it was cancelled after two episodes. Maybe I don’t get it because I’m not a pro, but it all seems so wasteful. I just think it would have been better to have a 5 or 6 week break, so as not to compete with the Olympics.

Matt, I think Lee could have helped fill the time with The Asset(s) as maybe a 4/5 week mini series, evidently not enough people thought it was compelling enough to commit to more. Am I way off base here?

I think the interesting part is going to be what the numbers are when these 3 shows premiere. I’m curious whether they will go up because they’ve been off the air for so long and people are excited to have them back or if they will go down because it’s been off the air for so long and people just forgot. Personally, I prefer this schedule, especially with a show like Scandal or Once Upon a Time. It doesn’t bother me so much for procedural shows or comedies as they tend to be standalone episode most of the time, but with serialized series, I hate it. I’d rather watch week-to-week, even if that means we get a 2 (or even 3) month break in between the first and second half of the season.

Articles like these would be a lot better served towards the end of the season, once it can be seen if the split season actually had an effect or not. Grey’s Anatomy is so old that it’s pretty standard. It seems like Once steadily declined but whether that has to do with scheduling or with a dull first half chock full of filler episodes is anyone’s guess.

Yes, Matt, please follow-up because the picture for Scandal might look different by season end. The numbers will be high tonight because the passionate fans are looking forward to the return, but there seem to be a number of people who had been feeling so-so about the show before the break and I’m not sure they’ll return. Of course, I’ll be watching though.

I guess we will find out tonight how well this split season worked. Honestly the wait wasn’t that bad. But it doesn’t seem like ABC has done much advertising for the return of Greys and Scandal, much less for Modern Family and The Middle and they were down considerably last night. Hope the same doesn’t happen to Scandal tonight

One of the reasons Modern Fam was down last night was people that do not watch SVU but watch Chicago PD were pulled in by the cross over event that NBC said was one to not miss, however Sophia Bush was not even on the episode. NBC may have made an error in airing the episode as she just popped up 2 seconds before Chicago PD started.
So that is why SVU was up in viewers and Modern Family had less.
Modern Family did good last week up against the Olympics, so no need to worry.

I think the split season thing is good especially for shows like Once. But I must be honest the wait was too too long it’s 10 days till Once comes back and I’m dying here for 3 months. Ga and Scandal shouldn’t go like this I’m more for the system HoD is using currently 8 fall eps, 5 winter and 8-9 spring eps.

I like the 12/12 split. Sure, the winter hiatus feels like forever but it’s worth it knowing that the episodes are going to air straight through to the finale. I much rather wait a chunk of time than have random repeats messing up the viewing/story flow.

I like it and really, network TV is the only place still adhering to this Sept – May all at once schedule. Cable and the UK both do shorter, continuous runs and look at how those shows are dominating the TV conversation.

I’m no expert of ratings and stuff, but I’m glad they decided to split Once’s season in two halfs. Yeah, the hiatus was harsh, but they really managed to build up the hype! And we’ll be able to watch the second half without waiting two weeks every time. Ouat and Scandal are that kind of shows that have some kind of continuity between the episodes, so it’ll be great to enjoy the next ones without mini-hiatus.

I think it worked well this year. Let’s face it. We would have had a break in February anyway since most networks didn’t have new programming during the Olympics. At least this way it doesn’t disrupt the rhythm of the season and it should flow better.

I think ABC should have stuck to the original plan of airing limited series during the winter hiatus and it’s important that such series be similar to the show they are replacing or have a similar audience. ABC has quite a few limited series in their development slate but thus far none have been picked up to series.

I think from a writing stand point, the split season is working. From a *fan* stand point it has been a very long 3 months without OUAT in which the fandom has only driven itself slightly crazy. But I don’t expect network execs to take internet culture into consideration. I like that OUAT split itself into two in order to have two big arcs, with less “filler” episode–a huge problem in S2.

No surprise that OUAT ratings have been steadily dropping. Ever since the character assassination of Hook, the DISASTEROUS Neverland arc, and the constant shoving of CS down everyone’s throats in favor of other characters NOT getting deserved screentime. I’ll be surprised if ratings go up at all. I’m hearing more and more people quitting the show because of these factors.

The ratings are steady even with counting the DVRs in.
Also ppl like Hook and Emma.Hook – you know its in the story and build up narratively. And how its all been developing. Quit complaining esp when this article doesnt even say anything else then just asking opinions on the spilt of episodes.

How is a drop of an average 3 million viewers between S2 & S3 ‘steady’? And I was making an observation based on LOTS of fans that I have seen that agree with me. So I was making a comment based of S2 & S3 & my OPINION on why the ratings have dropped so much. Sorry if you don’t like my opinion. But it’s mine to have, not yours. Good for you for liking Hook. (I loved him in S2 personally) & CS. But I don’t, & neither do a lot of other people. Which, I would guess is one of the reasons as to why the ratings are dropping.

Hook and CS, is one part of the show amongst other several things in the show, when other several things are happening in the show as a whole, either these ppl who claim and agree dont watch the show as a whole or understand it (because its called character development along with story developing), take in the story and episode then focused on one aspect. Then really they arent watching the show as a whole. Because i dont know what else to think. Better off not watching if not watching for whole show then disargeeing with one aspect which other ppl like and is popular and is developing and also other things happening as well

AGREED. OUAT works a whole. it has a story. it has couples and how its written. its what important. I say i like Hook and Emma/Hook because of what i am seeing and how its been written. Not anything else.

Character development hasn’t been happening for Hook. He went from 300 years of plotting to kill Rumple to chasing Emma in about two days time with nothing in between. That’s not development. And he was much better in the second than he’s been in the third. There hasn’t been build up for a relationship between him and Emma either. Him chatting with her as they climb the beanstalk isn’t building anything, it was just conversation. Because a day or two later he left her in Rumple’s cell with her mother, Aurora, and Mulan. Once he go to Storybrooke he was focused on Rumple, not Emma. So when was this “build up” supposed to have happened?

I’ve watched every episode and I think I understand it but i think the first half of this season was awful. Watching characters I loved wandering aimlessly around a soundstage jungle for multiple episodes was painful. Given that, I’d say the split season could be disastrous. If it wasn’t good when I last saw it, why would I tune in again?

If you are no longer being entertained by the show, perhaps you should not watch it? Like any show, there are going to be parts you don’t like, that’s normal. But you have to look at the big picture as a whole. The writers are telling the story they want to tell, if that entertains you that is great, if not then you can turn the channel. I would assume that if enough people turn the channel, then the writers would have to look at achieving their goal in a different way.

I started watching because it was about Fairytales and because Ginny and JMO were in it. As I watched I realized I really enjoyed Rumple, Granny, Ruby, Grumpy, etc. they make the show even better, because there are many aspects to entertain someone. Some episodes have faltered, some have been a success. I enjoyed the Hook/Emma moments and will be happy to see them continue. However, we don’t KNOW what is going to happen in the second half of the season, we’ve seen pictures and gotten glimpses of titles, etc. but it’s all part of a puzzle, so while you can assume they are going to make it all about Hook, you don’t know.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to make everyone happy, so some people are going to be upset and some are going to be more vocal and even ruder about it than others. But in the end, guess what? It’s just a television show.

If, as I suspect, CS is some sort of derogatory fan fiction term then perhaps you should go back to reading it. I can recall precisely THREE Hook/Swan scenes, none of which lasted more than a minute. That’s hardy “constant shoving”. And who are these “other characters not getting deserved screentime”? Large cast shows can’t use everybody every week, but over time OUaT seems to be fairly even handed.

I liked the idea of Hook being an antihero and Pan was the villain. It made the Peter Pan story fresh as opposed to the one we’ve seen done over and over again. I will say though, they definitely changed him from villain to antihero really quickly, but that’s probably because people thought Colin was hot.

What I see is a blue line without so many spikes as the red line on all 3 shows. Which tells me that people could predict when a show is on. I will be curious to see if there’s a bump up as the shows return. Because it has been a long time since we saw new episodes and there’s a lot of anticipation for them to come back

I still think that these shows should have a 24 episode order. That way they can do three 8-episode blocks, 8 episodes in october-november/eary december, 8 episodes mid-Janary thru end of February, then the final 8 mid-April till May season finales!!! Perfect plan (if I do say so myself) And thank you Matt for the information, I enjoyed it and found it very informative.

Actually that scenario would not work and this is why. January and February are big months for specials and events such as awards shows and the Super Bowl. Shows get pre-empted for these live events and networks do not want to run new episodes against them. Secondly, working in production I can tell you that the average television show starts production in mid-late July. It takes 8 working days on average (working Mon-Fri) to complete filming an episode. By the time a show gets to their Christmas hiatus, they are usually just completing episode 13 or 14. And every episode needs at least two weeks to edit before it comes to air. The winter haitus break gives the shows an opportunity to catch up so that if the networks do decide to run straight episodes, it will time itself out to finish at the mid-late April for prinicipal photography.

When I first read about the split season I was not sold on the idea. But seeing how many shows that I watch were repeats during this break I think it was a good idea from a fan stand point. If Grey’s Anatomy didn’t have a winter break maybe they might have played 3 new episodes now I get 12 new ones with no repeats. Jackpot if you ask me.

i will say that the split season for scandal has worked, for me, because i was able to get caught up with the show via netflix and hulu during the break. i had never watched before, but kept hearing buzz, so over december and january i was able to watch the entire series and prep myself for tonight! i know of at least four other people who have done the same. so it seems, in my opinion, the networks that utilize netflix and hulu may gain a bump in that sense as well with new viewers! (obviously this is more likely for shows that haven’t been on as long, since catching up on 2.5 seasons like scandal versus 8+ seasons of grey’s is easier to do)

When they’re too cheap to pay for an entire, unbroken series season that used to be the norm, I guess they handle it about as well as could be expected. I can understand it in years when special events such as the Olympics come along. But a long hiatus just for the purpose of running crummy bargain-basement programming doesn’t cut it, IMO. And there’s always a risk fans of a show will get interested enough in something else to keep them from returning when a split-season series restarts.

When was an “entire, unbroken series season” the norm? That only happens with daytime soaps. Since the season begins in Sept. and ends in May, that requires 36 new episodes a year. It’s been decades since most shows consistently produced that many episodes. In fact, I’m not even sure the majority of them ever have, even going waaay back to the early days of TV,

And it’s not a matter of networks being cheap. Actors want time off. They don’t want to make 36 episodes a year. Some don’t even want to make 22 per season! I bet ABC would love 36 episodes of Scandal a year, but that’s never going to happen because the cast won’t do it.

Agreed…. S3 has been a disaster so far. I’ve heard/read of lots of people not coming back for S3B. I don’t expect the ratings to get any better. S1 & S2A were good. S2B was decent. But S3 is just…. Horrible. And everything I’ve heard/read so far about S3B isn’t sounding any better.

I haven’t read spoilers about OUAT (couldn’t be bothered to search this year), I only know what I read on TVLine and I’m really not excited so far. I agree that this season is a giant borefest and it’s crazy because these past two seasons I watched religiously, with an excitement I hadn’t experienced in a good while for a new show. Then Hook came, Neverland happened, everyone is related to everyone else, writing is getting subpar, and there are WAY TOO MANY characters. Now having a big cast is not a problem as long as the distinction is made between the leads, the sidekicks and the others and writers don’t feel compelled to put every character in every storyline and in every shot. As it is, almost every character is getting the “main player of the week” treatment and when it’s not that it’s all about shipping. Shows like Glee, Grey’s, OUAT etc have in common that they have big fanbases but way too many regular characters and shipping is overshadowing the general stories. This trend is killing TV.

This year I prefer watching The Blacklist, S.H.I.E.L.D. or The Tomorrow People because it’s entertaining without making me want to write down a list of every single thing that is wrong with it. Yes I can easily find wrong things with these ones too if I want to nitpick, but obviously not to the extent that it ruins an episode for me. Grey’s I can forgive because it’s a 10 y/o show and it can’t renew itself endlessly, there’s gotta be a point where it just doesn’t work without inevitably losing some viewers with time. The fact that it’s still on air proves that it’s been full of good stuff along the way even if it’s waning eventually.
But OUAT? There is no decent excuse, they’re just in their third season. The show is hiding behind the fact that fairytales are full of soulmates and stuff so they can capitalize on teen girls holding their breath over whether [insert pairing here] will be happy ever after. I’m a bit of a hypocrite here because I love some ships on several shows myself, but when it’s taking over everything else I don’t enjoy it anymore because the show overall is getting on my nerves and extreme shippers can contribute to make me loathe a show that I used to thouroughly enjoy.
TPTB should also remember that fairytales are full of a LOT of things. Season 1 proves that you can mix true love stuff with a lot of other themes. When all you have left to tell is about couples and enemies fighting with nothing substantial in between, then I guess you don’t really have a story worth to be told anymore. You just have an empty vehicle fueling fan wars and no solid oeuvre that will be remembered 15 years down the line with millions of nostalgic fans, like many shows before (Buffy, Charmed, X-Files, and the list goes on. And those definitely weren’t exempt of flaws!).

TL;DR >> TV shows are getting poor on every level, many are way too crowded, over-invested shippers are a plague and very few people are actively working to change that and it’s sad and infuriating.

yeah, I kind of agree. Sure, those repeats didn’t help, but overall season 2 was…maybe not bad, but extremely disconnected. Few good episode and after that a whole bunch of fillers. Really wierd and underwhelming season. I also think that in season 2 OUAT started to focus more on plot twists than character development. This problem, more or less, was still present in s.3A.

While I’m sad about the ratings drop because these are some my favorite shows and this break has been torture, I still prefer this split season format over the alternative. I love the fact that there will be no breaks in the second half.and we don’t to worry about the show constantly being bumped every other week.

Sure it’s sucks that ouat has lost some viewers, but that’s normal isn’t? .I mean other than Scandal, Modern Family and Big Bang are any other shows in S3 and not down viewership? I try to keep somewhat up on the ratings of the shows I like and I think OUAT lost around the same amount of viewers from the 1st season to the 2nd season…? I take it as a good sign that the dvr numbers are somewhat consistent with the live numbers from S2 .. and I mean sure I’d love it if more people were watching and watching live but with people streaming and hulu etc I think this will be a trend with a lot of dramas…I’m looking forward to 3B and from everything I’ve read the season looks great! I’ve enjoyed all three seasons but I do think all the breaks hurt OUAT needs momentum….and it’s not a show that you can just pop in and out of and keep up. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

Hey, ABC, to avoid filling the hiatus, next time stick to the original schedule and run what you were supposed to in regular time slot’s absence! Wonderland would have been able to run without you having to yank some crap show after two weeks.

Most shows ratings are dropping every year as more watch online. These graphs are really pointless begin we haven’t gotten the second half of the season yet. It isn’t really fair to compare half a season a year ago to half a season now. We have to see trends and such for a full season.

I think for OUAT the split was a great idea, although like others have mentioned, the anticipation is killing me. They left it with such a cliffhanger that I’m biting at the bit here, which is good because I think that will make for an awesome start up here in 10 days. I wasn’t happy with the start and stop of last year and I think it caused Season 2 to suffer a bit.

As for Grey’s, I’ve been a fan since the beginning, but have never had any issues with their schedule. Even this long hiatus hasn’t been that bad because it wasn’t a super huge cliffhanger they left us with IMO.

I think it’s too soon to tell if the split season worked or not and if ABC will try it again next season.The shows producers may like it because they have time to fix whatever went wrong in the first half regarding stories.

I like the fact that a 11-11 split allows the writers to pen some awesome scripts without having to consider bad timing (sports, politics, whatever it is that week). It offers more room for plot and character development. I guess it must be easier for cast and crew too?
Of course as a viewer it’s also hard to not lose interest during a hiatus if said show is not at its best when it takes a break. If it’s good of course people will be excited and happy when a show comes back, but if they weren’t into it it’s understandable that they’d rather watch something else live. If they bother to DVR the returning show.

Thanks for this article Matt I’ve always understood the principle behind split seasons, but don’t really think it works out the way it should on paper. by such long breaks the audiance looses that tension from week to week. it happened to me last season with revolution by the time it came back i really didn’t care what happened next.

maybe the networks should just do away with the hiatuses. Order a tv season of how many episodes and run them solid. End of season. Start a new season, with a new show. Don’t cut them up and put weird mid season shows on.

Yes, the reason is cost cutting. UK and cable shows pretty much have an entire series filmed before they even schedule it. But network shows couldn’t possibly do that in case they get cancelled rapidly. It would also be difficult with the bloated seasons that the networks adore. I’d rather see 10 great episodes of a show once a year with no gaps instead of 22 mediocre ones.

OK here’s what I think there are to my h vampire things out there .if your going to have one make it worth watching . Like dark shadows did in the long forgotten times ,and shows like grays anatomy are OK but need more action like more earthquake seans where the show can go for weeks and still have. Have some. Trauma, or real big storms of some kind where thy are out and a bout helping victims. We need shows that set us on the edge of our seats. Not put us to sleep. And the bachelor is so boring. What e er happened to real life love and family.not stupid things like the one who sets in his discusting nasty underwhere
Goldbugs I think k. .now are going to do that in family. ick

We need family values keep junk shows for late night OK sorry that’s just me. ..once and once upon a time are Gr8. We need more like them .

My top show are once, once in w/l, revolution,shield, castle, supper fun night, defiance, general hospital, there’s a show that could be on at night ,and of course good movies make it a movie night so family’s can watch together.